Texas - Codes 22.10
Leaving a Child in a Vehicle
(a) A person commits an offense if he intentionally or knowingly leaves a child in a motor vehicle for longer than five minutes, knowing that the child is:
(1) younger than seven years of age; and
(2) not attended by and individual in the vehicle who is 14 years of age or older.
(b) An offense under this section is a Class C misdemeanor.
** If the child is injured the charge is then child endangerment which is a felony. The penalties are six months to two years in jail and a fine up to $10,000.
kidsandcars.org
There are only 11 other states with legislation like Texas’ in place at this time. Although many other states have action pending, Ohio is not one of them!!!
Washington state has something similar. Your example is a specific law for a specific act. In the absence of such a specific law, there are always other laws that could apply.
Basically, prosecutors look at the act as either being “ordinary negligence” like running a stop sign with no other violation and killing someone while doing so or “gross(criminal)negligence” such as running a stop sign at high speed or while intoxicated and killing someone.
If they determine that the act was ordinary negligence there will be no criminal charges. Gross negligence usuall brings criminal charges. One way an ordinary negligent act gets elevated to a gross negligent act is by repeated acts of ordinary negligence such as going out to the car multiple times and moving it without noticing the child in the car.